Exotic Z₂ Symmetry Breaking Transitions in 2D Correlated Systems

The Landau paradigm of phase transitions is one of the backbones in critical phenomena. With a $Z_2$ symmetry, it describes the Ising universality class whose central charge is one half (c = 1=2) in two spatial dimensions (2D). Recent experiments in strongly correlated systems, however, suggest intriguing possibilities beyond the Landau paradigm. We uncover an exotic universality class of a $Z_2$ symmetry breaking transition with c = 1. It is shown that fractionalization of discrete symmetry order parameters may realize the exotic class. In addition to novel critical exponents, we find that the onset of an order parameter may be super-linear in contrast to the sub-linear onset of the Ising class. We argue that a super-linear onset of a $Z_2$ order parameter without breaking a bigger symmetry than $Z_2$ is evidence of exotic phenomena, and our results are applied to recent experiments in phase transitions at pseudo-gap temperatures.